1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an externally powered gun having multiple number of fixed barrels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Advances in rapid fire guns have produced guns capable of firing over three thousand rounds per minute. With such capabilities, it is extremely important to have a feed system which moves the rounds of ammunition to the firing chamber in line with the barrel with the minimum amount of movement and to have dwell positions which are accurately controlled so that ammunition can be transfered from the feed system to the firing chamber and then out through the barrel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,147 issued to Goldin et al. on June 6, 1972 discloses a self-powered gun which has a breech block which vertically moves between a position aligned with the magazine and an upward position wherein it is aligned with the barrel and forms the firing chamber. The breech block has a follower cam engaging a slot within a cam plate which reciprocally moves such that the breech block has two dwell positions in alignment with the aforementioned magazine and barrel.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,977,854 issued to Wasset et al. on Apr. 4, 1961 discloses a rotating sprocket which moves the ammunition in alignment with the barrel. A shuttle moves toward the sprocket such that the sprocket and the shuttle form a split firing chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,973,692 issued to Altschuler on Mar. 7, 1961 discloses a single shuttle twin barrel gun in which a shuttle linearly moves between two positions between two rotating sprockets. Again the shuttle and sprockets form a split firing chamber.
Twin barrel guns using split firing chambers present problems in the fact that extreme stresses occur in the firing chamber which can cause premature wear on the gun parts particularly to the sprocket and shuttle which form the split chamber.